It's early - very early, it's dark and it's still. The bright silver moon is still up, also up is landscape photographer Michael Scott Lees and he's part way up a 60 degree rock face in prehistoric Palm Valley in the Western Macdonell Ranges that stretch to the west of Alice Springs in Central Australia.

Climbing with the tools of his trade, a back pack of camera equipment weighing 14 kgs, a tripod strapped to his body and a small maglite torch, Michael makes his way in the pre dawn darkness to a position he selected the evening before that will enable him to capture breathtaking images of another magnificent red dawn.

Its been a couple of hours since dawn, he packs away the camera gear, the flys have definately welcomed in the day and it's time to decend, boil the billy, stow the film, pack the 4WD and break camp to clock up a few more dusty kilometres... and he's loving every minute of it.

Yep thats how it was, especially the part about 'and he's loving every minute of it.'

Let me introduce myself, my name is Michael Scott Lees and I thought I'd write this profile on myself as alot of people ask to find out more about me. In a nut shell I'm a gentle character but can get fired up if I feel the cause is just, I have a passion for landscape photography and especially Australian landscapes, I love feeling as one with the landscape for to me it brings everything about life into perspective. I'm adventurous but sensibly so and capable of dealing with most things mother nature throws at me. I have a very loving and understanding wife (for I'm away alot) and two gorgeous little girls. But enough of that I'll now take you through the events of my life that have brought me to this spot.

As a high school student in Sydneys northern suburbs, I was more interested in a spur of the moment game of backyard cricket or exploring the surrounding bushland than attending to my formal studies. One day my brother brought home some black and white photo's from his photography class at school and I thought,'I want to do that'. So the next year I chose photography as an elective class, I had a great teacher and good students to bounce off. I had an inkling of what I was capable of when I won gold for portraiture in The Sydney Morning Herald photographic competition that was open to all the schools in NSW.

From school I went to Art college and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Visual Arts degree, from Alexander Mackey now called New South Wales Uni, College of Fine Arts, I majored in photography and minored in film making. I worked for a fashion photographer after leaving college and then launched into a freelance career where I develop my technical and commercial skills in the fields of advertising, portraiture, tourism, architechtural, geographical and industrial photography.

I picked up my first panoramic camera in 1982 and was hooked straight away. It belonged to the fashion photographer I was working for, and he allowed me to take it to central Australia where I went to capture my brothers life as a jackeroo on Bullgunia Station. In 1987 I purchased my first panoramic camera and travelled to Africa for 4 month and played Mr landscape photographer through Africa, it was a great time! The panoramic camera takes a transparency film 6cm x 17cm in size and I only get 4 shots to a roll, so I've got to be pretty sure the image is worth capturing.

From when I was first able to drive I was always getting out of Sydney and travelling Australia and capturing its diverse and awe inspiring landscapes, it was whilst at art college that I had the idea of one day setting up my own gallery.

I believe that it was my love of the Australian Landscape, my respect for it's pristine wilderness and the desire to explore and discover that have combined to direct me towards the field of panoramic landscape photography. My natural talent for composition and capturing the natural light and my passion for showing people what an amazing world we live in,and that we need to look after it, has lead me to where I am today, hopefully inspiring you.

I love natural light, so I use no photographic filters to capture my imagery, this translates into a lot of early mornings and shooting till after the sun goes down with long time exposures, a good dose of patience (which I seem to be able to do with photography) and a whole lot of frustration when the weather doesn't follow the forecast - a frustration that is felt all too frequently. I shoot with transparency film (slide film) and then scan that and print, when I print I have the transparency film on a light box next to me and I match the print to the transparency, thus getting the print to be as close as possible to what I saw.

So to cap off what I feel, Australia and the world, still enjoys unspoiled, remote and spectacular places, and my photographs depict the beauty of these places. The images reflect the extreme seasons, weather conditions the hardships brought about by fire flood and drought plus capturing the essence of the pioneering spirit and struggle of life on the land and I really hope that my imagery will inspire others to preserve and protect these great environments for future generations to discover.

Hope to see you on location or in one of my galleries soon.